Unexpected Love
by coolstorydad
Summary: Autumn,a new student at Hogwarts befriends James Potter,Sirius Black,and the rest of The Marauders. She even befriends someone she shouldn't be friends with: Severus. Though at first he's terribly cold towards her, he begins to warm up to her, however, as the attacks against muggle-borns increases, and he feels the need to protect her though he's not sure how.
1. Chapter 1

"Hurry the bloody hell up, Sirius!" James spat at his friend who was lagging behind.

They were late.

It was their first day back at Hogwarts and they were already about to get in trouble… Again.

During breakfast James and Sirius had a bit of a food fight. A bit would probably be an understatement. Food was flying everywhere. One even, somehow, made to a slytherin table the whole way across the room.

They were so loud that they drew the attention of other students and teachers, one teacher they hoped hadn't noticed had noticed. Professor McGonagall. Within a few minutes, she had addressed the boys, gave them detention, and sent them to their dorms to shower and change.

James had been waiting for Siris for over twenty minutes and couldn't take it anymore.

"Sirius, out. Now. We only have four minutes." James yelled out and stumbled back when Sirius suddenly bursted out of the bathroom.

"You can't rush perfection, Prongs." Sirius said flipping his hair dramatically before shooting his friend a toothy grin.

James ignored his friend's narcissism and sped past him down the hall.

"Hurry up, you little twat… Two minutes" James said.

They quickly made their way down the hall, but all of a sudden Sirius pulled James against the wall.

"What are you doing now? We haven't the time!" James said annoyed that his friend was going to make them much later than they needed to be, also because Lily was in that class too and if he didn't get there soon someone else might sit next to her.

Sirius, knowing his best friend, and of course, his obvious infatuation with Evans smiled at him knowingly as he replied, "Hold up, lover-boy. Mcgonagall at 12 o'clock."

James looked over Sirius's shoulder, and just as he had said, Mcgonagall was there. If she caught them, he knew they'd lose more house points and would have a longer detention sentence.

Suddenly, Mcgonagall's voice was echoing through the hallway.

"Sirius! James! What are you doing out of class?" she yelled, storming towards them.

Sirius only caught a slight glimpse of the fuming professor and could swear he saw steam coming out of her ears.

"Sirius and James! There you are!" another voice suddenly out.

Mcgonagall, Sirius, and James all directed their gaze towards the direction of which the unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke out.

The voice came from a girl standing towards the other end of the hallway, a girl James nor Sirius recognized.

Mcgonagall must not have recognized her either cause soon she was walking over to examine the young girl.

"And you are?" Mcgonagall questioned.

"Autumn DuBois." the young girl spoke out.

Sirius looked the girl up and down. She was just a few inches shorter than he, pale skin, with the blondest blonde hair he's ever seen. Her hair was slightly curly and was thrown in a very messy ponytail.

Sirius was trying to remember if she was one of the many he had taken out and never spoken too, but she looked totally unfamiliar. Plus, he wouldn't have agreed to take out a girl who looked so.. Innocent.

The girl had a small face with plump cheeks, also her eyes were the widest he'd ever seen, making her look like an innocent little doe caught in the headlights.

He would never take a girl like her out, not to mention the fact that she's a Ravenclaw. The house he hated most, with Slytherin not included since he more than hates that house.

"And Autumn , what business do your have with these two… Boys?" Mcgonagall asked, emphasizing the word, boys.

"You see, it's my first day at Hogwarts. I'm from the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts. These two were supposed to take me to my potions class." she said.

"Oh." Mcgonagall replied, eyeing the three of them before continuing, "Very well. I'll just escort you all there then."

The four of them walked in silence as James and Sirius beamed at their new friend, mentally thanking her.

James liked this girl already. Besides Lily, all the other girls, with exception to a lot of Slytherin housed girls, would throw themselves at James and Sirius, and James could already tell she wasn't like that.

Once they got to class, they were only 7 minutes late, not too bad.

They were confused when they saw majority of the students standing in the back of the class but the confusion was almost instantly erased when the teacher approached.

"Ah, lady and gentlemen, stand in the back of the room, I'm assigning your seats." the teacher, who Autumn later learned's name was Professor Slughorn, had addressed them upon their entrance.

When they got to the back James almost instantly began, "Thank you very much, Ms. DuBois. I'm James by the way." he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"It was no problem, really. I was late as well, so all's well that end's well, right?" she said, shaking his hand, and reaching for Sirius's next.

"I'm Sirius." Sirius said coldly, barely looking at the girl who had saved him just a few moments ago.

"Serious about what?" Autumn said, finally getting Sirius's attention.

He let out a low chuckle. Most Ravenclaw's were boring bookworms, but this one didn't seem too bad, he thought to himself.

* * *

"Black, Potter, you're over there." Slughorn called out pointing to a table.

James smiled, he was happy he was next to Sirius but couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that he wasn't seated to the love of his life, Lily. But his happiness reappeared, however, when ever he had noticed that the certain redhead was sitting right across the aisle from him.

He smiled to himself, but the smile soon disappeared when he head the following names called next.

"DuBois annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddddddddddd…. Snape." Slughorn called out.

Autumn took her seat behind James and was stunned to see him suddenly turn around with a disgusted look on her face. For a second she was scared she had done something wrong, but the fear vanquished when she looked to see what James was sneering at, it was the boy next to her, who she had barely noticed.

He was a lanky boy with long black hair that covered most of his face and skin just as pale as didn't take much for her to notice he was from the Slytherin house, wasn't exactly rocket seemed.. Mysterious, and Autumn had always loved mysteries.

Sirius turned around also, but was looking at her instead.

"You're not too lucky today, Autumn . Try not to touch him, you wouldn't want to catch his germs." Sirius said as he glared at the boy.

"Shut it, Black." the boy suddenly snapped.

Autumn was so confused as to why the three boys were glaring at each other, but thankfully the teacher started talking and her two new friends turned around to face the board.

The rest of the class flew by, and when they were dismissed, Autumn gladly got up and stretched.

"Boring, huh?" Sirius asked as he, too, stretched.

Autumn nodded her head as she pulled out her schedule to see where he next class was.

"What do you have next?" James asked, as he ruffled the back of his hair, which was already messy enough.

"Charms." she responded staring intently at her schedule.

"Charming, I also have charms next. .. Remus by the way." She looked up to see who the unfamiliar voice belonged to and smiled at the new face.

"Ah yes, Remus is a friend of ours." James said before continuing, "Moony, we shall trust you to escort our new friend, Autumn , to the charms classroom. Please do not fail us."

* * *

Next thing Autumn knew, it was lunch time. She examined the hall and noticed how everyone sat with people of their house. Slytherins with Slytherins, Ravenclaws with Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs with Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors with Gryffindors. Sadly, the only friends she made so far today were not in her house.

"Autumn !" a voice suddenly called out. A voice she recognized. It was James.

She made her way over to their table and said hello.

"Hey, Sirius." said concentrating on a map.

"Would you like to join us for lunch?" James asked taking a bite from a cupcake.

Autumn looked around, and asked, "But don't I have to sit with my house?"

Sirius, not looking away from his map, suddenly pulled on her wrist, causing her to fall into the vacant spot next to him.

"Couldn't we.. Well, I get in trouble for this?" she asked, wide-eyed, though her eyes were pretty much always wide.

Sirius sighed. "Ravenclaws always worry too much."

"No we-I don't!" Autumn retorted defensively.

"Prove it." Sirius responded, still never looking away from his map.

Remus rested his chin in the palm of his hands. Things were starting to get interesting.

"I will." she said, stubbornly, taking a cookie off a nearby tray.


	2. The Forbidden Forest

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" Autumn shouted trying to make her way through the crowd.

The day before in her Care of Magical Creatures class, she and Severus Snape were assigned to be partners.

She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. Sirius and James told her so much about the boy, but she thought he didn't seem that bad. Then again it is James and Sirius, the over-exaggerate every little thing.

She was aware how both parties hated each other and assumed Severus disliked her also since she associated herself with them. He probably thought she was an idiot since he thought her friends were.

Oh how she wanted to prove him wrong, but she was already getting off on the wrong foot. She was late.

Earlier, she thought she wouldn't have to leave early. She left about 5 minutes before their meeting time. She didn't think it'd take long to get there since it's Saturday. She mentally face palmed herself about a dozen times for thinking this way. You should've left earlier, she thought to herself.

Her thoughts, however, were interrupted when she tripped over someone's foot. She closed her eyes tight, bracing herself for her hard impact to the floor, but it didn't happen.

It took her a second to realize that there were arms wrapped around her and upon this realization her eyes shot open.

She looked over and was even more surprised to see Severus, who was staring down at her sharply.

For some reason, her heart began to beat a little quicker. It's because she almost fell, she tried to convince herself as she looked up into Severus's dark, gloomy eyes.

"You're late." he suddenly spoke, interrupting the silence.

Autumn awkwardly stood up and pulled herself out of his grip. Her skin where his long arms had once been burned, and her face suddenly began to heat up.

she tried to find the words to explain to Severus why she was late, but for some reason, her mind couldn't formulate a single sentence and she stared at Severus with her mouth slightly agape. And before she could even begin to explain, Severus started walking back to the library. She facepalmed herself, great, now he thinks you're a total nit.

She mentally prepared herself as she opened the library doors to walk in.

Upon entering, she immediately noticed Severus sitting the back corner of the library with everything already prepared.

Feeling eyes on him, Severus looked up at Autumn with a glare, but his expression softened, just a bit, when he realized it was her.

Autumn quickly made her way to the table and once she sat down, they immediately began to discuss how they were going to go about this project.

Their project, as was everyone else's in the class, was on dugbogs, creatures Autumn has never heard of.

Twenty minutes into their discussion, when they were just about finished, the library doors flung open and in ran her three best friends and another person she didn't know.

It was girl, and judging by her tie and robe, she was a Slytherin student and then realized that she's Remus's partner for the project.

Autumn groaned inwardly, as she saw Severus's expression change to one in disgust.

"Autumn… Snivelly." Sirius started before James nudged him with his elbow.

"There's Dugbogs in the Forbidden Forest!" James said excitedly.

"Okay, and?" Autumn retorted, wanting nothing more than the disappearance of her friends.

"If we captured some, you know what kind of grade we'd get!" he shouted, shaking Autumn by her shoulders.

"You want to capture some?" Autumn asked, looking at her friend in disbelief.

"Yes." Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"You're telling me, that you want to trudge our way through the Forbidden Forest and capture an XXX deemed creature?" She said, still in utter shock.

"Correct." James repeated, as if sounding bored.

"And you're aware that you'd have to be a strong wizard to deal with a creature having an XXX dangerous rating, correct?" she asked slowly.

The boys nodded their head, not quite grasping the big deal.

Autumn quickly got up to place a hand on James's head. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Checking to see if you're sick. You're not, you've just lost your mind. You've gone mad. Completely bonkers!" she said eyeing her three friends, and the unfamiliar face.

The girl she hadn't known scoffed at her, causing her to stop her rant on the insanity of their little plan.

"Ravenclaws." the girl said rolling her eyes.

"Excuse me." Autumn snapped back, forgetting about the calm, collected personality she wanted to show Severus.

"You heard me. You know, I always wondered… You seem to fit in with these losers," she gestured at James, Sirius, and Remus before continuing, "So why aren't you a Gryffindor?" she asked, pacing around Autumn. "But now I know." she smirked.

Autumn blew hair out of her face. "And what is the reason?" she asked feeling her cheeks begin to heat up in anger.

"Sure you're smart, realistic,and responsible, so of course you'd belong in Ravenclaw, but you could have also been in Gryffindor, but you weren't… Cause your a coward." the girl said as she looked at her nails.

Autumn began gathering her things and looked over at Severus who hadn't said a word. "Severus, I'll see you later tonight with… Them." she said before storming out of the library.

The group were huddle together, right outside of Hogwarts gates, not they were just waiting on Sirius.

Sirius, of all people he'd be the last one, and he'd be the one to do something stupid and get them caught.

As everyone stood quietly, Autumn constantly looked over her shoulder at the castle. Expecting it to suddenly sound an alarm.

She was scared. She'd never been out past the curfew.

If Sirius doesn't get here in one minute , I'm leaving, she told herself but as she finished her thought he had shown up.

"Ready?" he asked them. Though it was dark, Autumn could see the determined look in his face.

She sighed before answering, "Let's get this over with."

The six of them trudged up the hill, silently. Turning left and right and right and left and left and left then right. With all the random turns they were making Autumn was almost certain they'd get lost, and she was right.

Sirius frowned as he looked at the map.

"Where are we?" James asked as he cleaned his glasses.

"This is what get for letting Black lead." Severus snapped.

"Look here Snivelly, no one really asked you to come." Sirius retorted.

"You dunderhead. I think, in all my years, you are the most incompetent person I've ever met." Severus said, reaching for his wand.

"And you're the ugly you ol' git." Sirius pulled out his wand, and shot some sort of spell at Severus, but Severus successfully blocked it.

"Stop it!" Autumn yelled out, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

James pushed past Sirius and went to comfort her.

"We're lost, and you two fighting isn't going to help anything. Please just stop!" she yelled, now sobbing.

Before anyone could say anything, Severus suddenly yelped in pain.

Everyone's eyes shot over to his direction. "I was bit he yelled."

Everyone stood up and examined the ground under James's wand light. "I wonder what it was." he wondered out loud.

"I reckon it was this little guy." Sirius said, holding up a strange looking dark, small creature.

"A dugbog." Severus said, his voice almost in a whisper.

"There nest is probably around here somewhere. Let's spread out, not too far though." James demanded.

"Severus, can you walk?" Raven asked.

Severus glared at her before shooing her away and slowly stood up.

Autumn noticed he was wincing in pain. "Severus, maybe you should sit for awhile." she said, her voice full of worry.

Severus ignored her, and still tried to walk, but suddenly lost his balance, and just like he did for her earlier, Autumn prevented intercepted his fall.

The only thing was he wasn't as light as her and she wasn't as strong as him, and as gravity would have it, they both went tumbling to the ground.

Autumn giggled after they hit the ground, and Severus glared down at her, but his glare softened, and a smile crept upon his face.


End file.
